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<title>night has always pushed up day by ScreechTheMighty</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27458452">night has always pushed up day</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScreechTheMighty/pseuds/ScreechTheMighty'>ScreechTheMighty</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>God of War (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Headcanon, I will fist fight GoW!Thor behind the mead hall if given the chance, Mimir is here also just on the shelf giving good advice, Not Beta Read, Phobias, Trauma, cory please put more faye content in gow5, crossposted from tumblr</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:20:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>946</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27458452</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScreechTheMighty/pseuds/ScreechTheMighty</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><i>you must know life to see decay</i> | Atreus learns why his mother was afraid of thunder.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Atreus &amp; Faye (God of War), Atreus &amp; Kratos (God of War)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>night has always pushed up day</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Shout out to anyone who's here from tumblr, sorry my main blog is a hot-ass mess of discourse.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mother hated storms.</p>
<p>She had always put on a brave face, but he still knew. Atreus remembered being woken up by thunder more than once and found either Mother in his bed or himself moved into Mother’s bed. It always felt like she was trying to protect him; he just didn’t know from <em>what</em>. Thunder was just noise; lightning was dangerous, and he knew the scars on her arm were from a lightning strike, but it couldn’t hurt them as long as they were in the house. That was what Father said.</p>
<p>But some nights, he’d watch Father pace back and forth by the door, staring at it as if he expected someone to come through. So maybe there <em>was</em> something to be afraid of. He’d never asked.</p>
<p>He never got the chance.</p>
<p>But he thought he’d figured it out.</p>
<p>Atreus didn’t bring it up, not at first. Father still had a hard time talking about Mother, and he didn’t want to push that. But one night, the storms returned. Thunder rolled outside as a mixture of snow and rain hit the roof, and lighting flashed behind the door. Atreus, still half-asleep, got up and started for the other bed, because Mother might have been too sick to get him but she’d want him there or she’d worry…</p>
<p>“Go back to sleep, boy,” he heard Father say. “It’s only a storm.”</p>
<p>That woke him up. He remembered, then, that Mother was gone. She wasn’t there to protect him from…</p>
<p>Atreus rubbed his eyes and looked up at his father. He was sitting on the edge of the bed with Mother’s axe on his lap, watching the door as he often did. “Can I stay with you?” Atreus asked quietly. It didn’t feel right to just go back to sleep and leave Father alone with the storm.</p>
<p>Atreus expected Father to say no; he was surprised when Father grunted quietly and moved to give Atreus space to crawl into the bed. Atreus scrambled into bed, lying on his side to watch the door with Father.</p>
<p>Something about the situation made him feel brave enough to ask.</p>
<p>“Thor killed Mother’s family, didn’t he?”</p>
<p>It made sense; Mother was a giant, and Father said that someone had killed her family. Thor hated giants. Whenever one died in one of Mother’s stories, or Mimir’s, it was usually at his hands.</p>
<p>“…she never said it was him,” Father said quietly. “She told me there had been a storm the night they died. The man who did it came seeking retribution for a crime not committed by any of her people. She was struck by lightning while fleeing…only survived because she pretended the strike had killed her. I don’t think she was much older than you are.”</p>
<p>“Sounds like Thor,” mumbled Mimir from his place on the shelves. He sounded like he’d just woken up. “He’d take any excuse to kill a giant. Even if it was false. Anything to give his killing sprees some legitimacy.”</p>
<p>Atreus gripped the blankets tightly. His could feel anger starting to fill up his chest. The only times he ever saw Mother afraid was during the storms. Thor had hurt her. Atreus barely had any family left because of him.</p>
<p>It wasn’t <em>right.</em></p>
<p>“I hate him,” Atreus said without thinking.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until the words had left his mouth that he realized how it must have sounded. Father didn’t want him to be that angry; he warned him away from it all the time. <em>Rage will hurt you before it hurts your enemy, boy. You must not give into it.</em></p>
<p>But it was the truth, and Atreus didn’t want to just hold onto it. Not talking about it wouldn’t make it any less true.</p>
<p>Father was quiet at first, still watching the door. He didn’t look at Atreus when he spoke. “I understand. And you are not wrong to feel that way, Atreus, but…you cannot allow that hatred to cloud your actions. Your mother hated him, I am sure, but she never sought him out. She knew better. She may not have faced him, but she died a thorn in his side. He was never able to kill her. That was her victory.”</p>
<p>“Your da is right,” Mimir added, sounding much more awake. “Everything she did, making their lives difficult? Left much more an impression than going for him directly would’ve. He was the one giant she was never able to kill and it ate him up every day.”</p>
<p>Atreus nodded. His grip loosened a little. “Yeah.”</p>
<p>Maybe one day, when he was bigger, he’d be able to do what Mother had. Cause problems. Make them miserable. Be the one giant Thor couldn’t kill.</p>
<p>Maybe he was doing that already, just by being alive.</p>
<p>“Still. Mom would’ve won if she had,” he said with complete confidence. Father chuckled quietly. “Is that why you’d stay up? So she’d feel better?”</p>
<p>Father hesitated again. “That is part of it, yes. The rest…”</p>
<p>Another pause.</p>
<p>“…Zeus was the god of lightning.”</p>
<p>Oh. “I’m sorry,” Atreus said quietly.</p>
<p>“Don’t be.” To his surprise, Father rested a hand on Atreus’s head. “You should rest.”</p>
<p>Atreus already felt tired, but he tried to force his eyes to stay open. And when Father pulled his hand away, he grabbed it and held it tightly. “I won’t let anything hurt you,” he said.</p>
<p>He’d said that to mother once, during a storm when she was sick. She’d held him closer then, told him how brave he was.</p>
<p>Father didn’t say anything, but he didn’t pull his hand away.</p>
<p>The sound of thunder slowly faded away. Only then were they able to sleep.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm on tumblr as screechthemighty if you want to brave following me there. Title and description lyrics from "After the Storm" by Mumford &amp; Sons (which turned 11 this year...I feel Old...).</p></blockquote></div></div>
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